Enigmatic: Sapphire City Supers

Chapter 9: Night at the Museum Take Three

If it had been dimly lit before, now it was really, truly dark. I heard a yelp of surprise from somewhere in the room, a muffled curse, and some shuffling about, but otherwise had no more concept of where I was or who was around.

A minute later, a strange hissing sound came from somewhere, and my pulse began to quicken. This didn't feel like the mistake of someone who didn't realise there were still people in here.

Suddenly, someone grabbed my wrist, and I bit back a shout as I recognised Seb's voice.

"Kenna, something's wrong here," he muttered low into my ear. "My alarms are going like crazy."

"You're telling me," I whispered back. "Any ideas?"

"I'm texting Gareth to send some of the team over ASAP. They might already know. I have a theory, but I don't know if they'd be stupid enough to try again this soon."

"The art gallery?" I asked. The low glare of his phone suddenly lit up his silhouette, and I could make out him nodding. Even though he was standing right next to me, I could barely see his features; the air was thick and swirling with some kind of a fog, like dry ice. 

"Uhh, Seb? Have a look at me." I could tell that he looked up, but nothing else.

"Okay, whoever is doing this must be trying to make extra sure they don't get caught. Backup is on the way. Do you think you could try and find people to start getting them out of here?"

"Sure. I might have a flashlight in my purse, though I don't think it'll do much in this stuff."

"I'll tell them to bring lights, in case we can't get this sorted out."

Voices started calling out from the dark room. My eyes had begun to adjust; my eyesight was better than most, but the fog was thick, and I could only make out shapes moving about, trying to find each other.

Then it occurred to me. "I have an idea, Seb. The cases have individual lighting. Do you think you could give them a jolt of electricity and force them to turn back on artificially?" I rummaged about in my purse for a moment. "I've got the flashlight so maybe we could find at least the amulet's case."

A silence stretched before he spoke again. "Yeah, that might work. If I just do one, it might get the electricity moving through the system that connects the cases, and it could work to light them all up. It probably won't bring the main lighting back on though."

"It'll be something," I said.

"Okay, but it might draw a bit of attention, it's a bit, uh, flashy, as you know."

I thought for a moment. "I'll gather more of this gross fog in around you and it'll dull it; it'll look like barely more than a phone light."

"Alright, it's better to do something while we wait anyhow."

I pulled out the tiny flashlight and switched it on. It threw out a weak beam that was quickly swallowed by the thick mist. "Dammit," I muttered. "It'll take forever to find anything with this." At that moment, I remembered the feeling I'd been repressing since we'd come back into the room. "Grab my hand, Seb, I've got another idea." I closed my eyes for a moment, letting the pull of the amulet's energy wash over me, and draw me towards it. "This way," I whispered, eyes open again to do my best to guide us past any obstacles.

Luckily, we didn't meet anyone on our way, and we were soon at the amulet. The flashlight could now make out the edges of the case. I turned my focus to the air around it, concentrating my mind on the mist particles swirling about us, tugging them into a protective cocoon all about us. The light didn't seem to spill past the edges, so I urged Seb to start.

His fingertips glowed, and white hot light burst forth with a crackling intensity, pouring out and up along the edges of the case, into the top where we both knew the light sat. I saw the barest flicker of a filament spark, before the little bulb hummed back to life and emitted a soft, golden glow once again.

True to Seb's word, the cases around the room slowly began to light up one by one, as the electricity flowed through their circuits once more. Seb stepped quickly away several paces from the display, and I let the cloud I'd gathered about us disperse once more.

With some of the lights back on, we could get a general sense of the room, but the viscous fog meant that I couldn't pick out anybody's features or tell who it was that was around me. It was disorienting, especially with the slight fuzz of the champagne still in my brain. 

I considered trying to clear the particles of the fog away, but there was too much, and it seemed to still be flowing from somewhere, reminding me that there was still someone nefarious about, if not a Villain or two.

And then, right on cue, as if they'd read my thoughts, the faintest green glow appeared out of the corridor and into the room.

Seb cursed under his breath. "For god's sake, it is this guy again. They'd better get here quickly because I might not be able to take him out myself. Especially if they don't bring me my kit. I don't want this nut job knowing who I am. Remember when I said the hypnotic, forcefield Villain seemed a bit green? I meant that figuratively and literally. I'm going to have to slip away in a few minutes to meet up with the team. Do what you can to look after everybody but don't put yourself in harm's way. Luckily, your abilities are a little more discreet."

As the Villain came closer, I could make out a shape. The glow seemed to be coming from his hand area, and higher up in two points, like his eyes were lit up green. He had a strong, humming power radiating around him like he was his own generator.

A hush fell over the room, as the blurry shapes seemed to notice a new presence amongst them. He was an eerie, commanding form.

Then, the Villain spoke, cutting through the silence. "Oh come on! What are you people doing here?"

I couldn't help myself; I snorted loudly. Seb was right about this guy.

"Well, Kenna's still here somewhere," I heard someone say dryly from the near side of the room. Obviously my friends knew me well.

The Villain's glowing hands moved up towards the green points of his eyes, like he was rubbing his temples in frustration. "Okay, well, you're here. That happened. So, I'm sorry, or whatever, but you're all going to have to stay exactly where you are for a few minutes. You may feel a slight tingle." His hands began to glow stronger, brighter, and I realised what was about to happen.

"Go, Seb!" I hissed as quietly as possible, "Before he freezes everyone, run NOW!"

He squeezed my hand and then the air beside me registered that he was gone. Good thing he was Super fast. It happened so quickly that by the time the Villain had brought his hands all the way up, the only sound had been a slight rustling and I was all alone.  

***

A/N: What will Kenna do? Is anyone excited to have met our first Villain? He's not that thrilled, frankly, since he was hoping to just sneak in and get the job done without an audience, but them's the breaks! Speaking of breaks, this Night at the Museum chapter is probably going to be more like 5 or 6 parts as it's really just very long. Lots to do when you're thwarting Evil Schemes, you know!

Thanks for reading! Please do feel free to vote and/or leave me a comment to let me know if you've enjoyed the story thus far!